Hoodoo broken as Melbourne defeat Brisbane 3-0 | Thebigtip

Melbourne Victory finally christened their new home yesterday with a hard fought 3-0 win over the Brisbane Roar in front of a crowd of 13,792 at AAMI Park. It was a match in which prodigal son Michael Theoklitos made his highly anticipated return to the city where he made his name, this time however he was kitted out in the Roars colours, and by games end he would have wished he’d brought his navy blue kit instead.

Melbourne went into the game coming off a 2-0 loss away to the Central Coast Mariners and needing a win to get their season back on track. The Roar meanwhile had not conceded a goal in four games and were coming off a 0-0 draw away to the Newcastle Jets. It was a match about contrasts which saw the best defence in the league pitted against one of the worst defences.

The first half was rather uneventful with the Navy Blues playing a rather uninspiring brand of football, while the Roar seemed happy to sit back and defend. The Roar’s offensive stocks were dealt a blow early when Henrique badly broke his arm in the 2nd minute after a fair challenge by Melbourne Captain Kevin Muscat. This was a big blow for the Roar as they have really struggled to find the back of the net, having scored only two goals in four games.

The 16th minute saw Carlos Hernandez hit the wood-work from a trademark free kick outside the box that produced a great save from Theoklitos. It was to be the only highlight of the first half with both sides never looking to break the deadlock, this coming even though Melbourne clearly dominated possession. The Navy Blues seemed to concentrate their attacks through the middle of the park instead of using the wings to cut inside their opponents defence.

The second half was almost unrecognisable to the first and with Merrick’s words still ringing in their ears the boys in blue attacked Brisbane’s goal relentlessly and in it almost paid off in the 50th minute when Hernandez sent his shot low and wide past the inside post. It wasn’t long until the Navy Blues persistence in front of goals paid off and exactly 20 seconds later substitute Tommy Pondeljak became the first player this season to score against the Roar when his 50th minute strike managed to get past three defenders and an outstretched Theoklitis to give Melbourne the lead. 1-0 Melbourne.

It got better for Melbourne in the 55th minute when Brazilian import Ricardinho scored his first goal in his second game for his new side. The King of the Dribble showed why he is rated so highly at Melbourne when surrounded by 5 defenders he managed to twice nutmeg Luke DeVere and toe poke the ball past an unsuspecting Theoklitis in a comedy of errors by the Roar defence. 2-0 Melbourne.

It seemed as if Melbourne was leaving it’s best until last when Grant Brebner scored an absolute cracker from outside the box in the 70th minute of the game. Brebner drove his bullet like shot past a diving Theoklitis, who by this stage must have been hoping the ground would open up and swallow him.

With the three points secured by the 70th, all Melbourne had to do was defend their second clean sheet of the year and to be honest it was hard to see Brisbane getting close to scoring and so the clean sheet can be seen to flatter Petkovic and his back three, who will be tested against the free-flowing Wellington Phoenix this Wednesday night.

The only low-light of the win was seeing Kevin Muscat limping off in the 85th minute of the match and it was later revealed that the Melbourne captain will miss up to a month of football with ligament damage to his ankle. It can be seen as a positive however, as it provides guys like Adrian Leijer and Billy Celeski the chance to grow as leaders and display their leadership credentials as captain potential, and who knows maybe someone new will step up and stamp their leadership on the squad.